Before the Letter
by Kristen Riddle
Summary: Hermione's always getting picked on because she's a grade ahead. Will going to a magic school change all that?


**Before The Letter**

            Hermione's hand shot up so fast it knocked the pencil off the desk.  Mrs. Babcock sighed.  "Yes, Hermione?"

            "Four," Hermione answered confidently.

            "Correct," said Mrs. Babcock.

            Hermione smiled.  "As usual," someone behind her whispered.  Hermione's smile faded.

            "Now finish the rest of the worksheet, and when you're finished, raise your hand and I will collect it," Mrs. Babcock instructed.

            Hermione picked her pencil up off the floor and started to do the math problems right away.  She finished in less than ten minutes and raised her hand right away.  Her classmates were still on the first few problems.

            Mrs. Babcock went over to Hermione's desk and took her worksheet.

            "What should I do now?" whispered Hermione.

            "I don't know.  I don't have anything else for you.  Just put your head down for a while."

            And so it went.  Every day in fifth grade, Hermione would finish her work before everyone else and have nothing to do.  Finally, it was suggested that she moved up to sixth grade.

            Hermione was happy there.  The work was challenging.  But the sixth graders were not as happy as she was.  They were jealous.  They didn't like being shown up by a ten-year-old.  They tortured her and threatened her.  

            "If you raise your hand we'll beat you up at lunch time."

            "Get the right answer and you'll pay."

            They also teased her.

            "Go back to where you came from, smarty."

            "Go back to elementary school, nerd."

            "Why are you so smart, you baby?"

            Hermione came home every day and cried in her room.  But she never let her parents know she was struggling.  

            On the last day of school, a group of boys walked up to her desk.  "So what did you get this year, Her_mione?"_

            Hermione tried to hide her report card in her backpack, but the boys snatched it away from her.

            "All _A's as usual," the boy sneered.  "You think you're so great?  You think you're better than us?"_

            Hermione shook her head.

            The boy crumbled up her report card and threw it across the room.

            "Hey!" Hermione shouted.  "Give that back!"

            Another boy picked up her crumbled paper.  "What's this?" he asked innocently, throwing the paper to another boy.  

            "Stop!" Hermione shouted.  "That's mine!"  They boys continued to throw the report card around.

            Hermione, realizing she could not get it back, sat down at her desk and started to cry.

            Then suddenly, the paper flew out of a boy's hand, uncrumbled itself and landed in Hermione's bag.  

            The classroom went silent.  Hermione looked up to see what had caused it, quickly wiping her eyes.  Everyone was staring at her.

            "How'd she do that?" one girl asked in awe.

            The boys quickly sat down at their desks, afraid something else would happen to them.  Hermione looked at the paper.  How did it get in her backpack?  And how was it perfectly straight without a crease or a fold?  She couldn't explain it.  Had she done it?  Had she just gotten lucky?  She didn't know.

            The day was rather uneventful after that.  The sixth graders seemed to be scared of her, so they didn't tease her much.

            Hermione came home on the bus as usual.  She decided not to tell her mother what had happened today.  She ran in the door, glad that it was finally summer vacation, even though she liked school a lot.  But she wanted a break from the teasing.  She took out her report card and showed it to her mom.

            "I'm so proud of you, Hermione!"  Mrs. Granger said.  "Wait until your father sees this!  He'll be so pleased!  He thought it would be a bad idea to move you up a grade!  What should we do to celebrate?"

            Hermione shrugged.

            "Oh, I know!  We should go to your favorite restaurant!  I'll make reservations.  Will you go get the mail, dear?"

            Hermione put her books down and walked to the mailbox.  She grabbed the bundle of mail and flipped through it as she walked back to the front door.  There was mail for her!

            She took out the heavy envelope.  It was addressed in emerald green ink in loopy handwriting.

            "Our reservations are at seven," said Mrs. Granger.  "What's that?"

            "I got mail," said Hermione, setting the other mail on the table and opening the envelope.  She quickly took it out and read it.

            "Mom, is this a joke?" she asked.

            "Let me see it," Mrs. Granger said.  She scanned the letter quickly.  Her face showed a mix of excitement and confusion.  "Hermione, do you know what this is?!"

Hermione shook her head.  

"It's an acceptance letter to a very fine private school!  They must have seen your grades.  I don't know what all this is about wizardry and witchcraft and these odd school supplies, but if they want you, it must be a very fine school!  Now we have an even better reason to celebrate!  I'll call your father."  She left the room to call Mr. Granger, where he was still at work filling teeth.  

            Hermione read the letter over and over.  She had never believed in such things as magic and witches.  But that would explain her report card flying away from the boys and uncrumbling.  That would explain other odd things that had happened to her, like that pie thrown in the food fight last week that was a few inches from her face when it suddenly vanished.  

            This pleased Hermione.  She would never have to go back to that school again!  She would never be teased again!  And the list of supplies that was enclosed in the letter had called her a first year student, so she wouldn't be ahead of the others her age!  She was going to be a normal student.  

            "Come on, Hermione!  We're leaving!" called Mrs. Granger from the living room.  Hermione ran downstairs and out the door to dinner.

            As the days went by, Hermione and her mother began to shop for their many school supplies.  They decided to go into London to see if they could find any of the strange items.  While walking, Hermione noticed a small pub called the Leaky Cauldron, and decided that must be the place to get cauldrons, wands, and robes.  Her mother could not see it, so Hermione went inside by herself and was told where to buy the supplies she needed for school.

            About a month before she was about to leave for school, Hermione began to panic.  What if the other students knew much more that she did?  What if they already knew magic spells and she didn't?  Hermione decided that she needed to prepare herself for going to Hogwarts.  She read each book she had to buy for school twice each, and made sure to practice using her wand and doing the spells in her _Standard Book of Spells, Grade One_. By September first, she was totally ready for anything the teachers were going to throw at her.  Her mother drove her to King's Cross Station and she boarded the train to her new school.

            She stowed her luggage in a train car, kissed her mother goodbye, and soon they were off towards Hogwarts.  She was changing into her robes when a small, nervous looking boy ran into her.  

            "Sorry about that.  I was looking for my toad.  Have you seen it?" the boy asked.  

            "No, I haven't," Hermione said sadly, "but I'll help you look for it."  She put her belongings under her seat and followed the boy.  "Oh, by the way, my name's Hermione Granger."

            "Neville Longbottom," said the boy.  

            "Nice to meet you.  Let's find your toad."  

            Hermione and Neville walked along, meeting many new people.  Hermione knew that things were going to be different here than at her old school.  These people wouldn't tease her or torture her.  She was sure of it.  

            However, Hermione was wrong.  Although the other students were nice to her at first, behind her back they said she was too bossy, too smart, too nerdy.  They were just like the others at her old school.  

            The worst was a boy named Ron Weasley.  He didn't seem to think being smart was very important, and he made fun of her often.  Although she was getting good marks, Hermione wasn't very happy at school.  She started crying in her room after classes, just like when she was at her old school.

            One day, Ron went too far.  She knew he had been talking about her behind her back, but that day, he confirmed it.  

            "_It's no wonder no one can stand her, she's a nightmare, honestly," Ron was saying as Hermione walked by him on her way out of Charms class.  _

            "_I think she heard you," said Ron's friend Harry Potter.  _

"_So?  She must've noticed she's got no friends," Ron added.  Hermione ran crying into the bathroom even though she was supposed to go to her next class.  _

            She was sitting on the counter, crying when she heard a loud grunt and the door slam shut.  She uncovered her eyes and saw a twelve foot mountan troll holding his club and getting ready to swing at her.  She opened her eyes wide and screamed at the top of her lungs.  

            Suddenly, Harry and Ron rushed in.  Harry jumped on the troll, occupying its attention while Ron used a spell to levitate the troll's club and knock it on its own head.  The troll was defeated and they were safe.  The teachers walked in and found her and the two boys alone with the knocked-out troll.  The boys had saved her life, and she owed them, so she lied to get them out of trouble.  From then on, Hermione, Harry, and Ron were an inseparable trio.  _There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a 12-foot mountain troll is one of them._

~*Words in italics pulled from _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_ by JK Rowling.*~


End file.
